Where the Buffalo Roam

 

by Pa Rock

Farmer in Spring

As a retiree with strong OCD tendencies, my life tends to operate along well-established routines.  Sometimes surprises happen which impact my schedule, but I try to get everything quickly back in order and functioning with comfortable monotony.

One of those sudden changes happened a couple of months ago when a young, bouncy, seventy-pound puppy showed up at our house and decided that she wanted to stay.  She was with my son and I for a week or so and quickly became a part of our lives, but then her rightful owners showed up and took her home.   A week or so later they called my son and said they were having trouble with the dog and asked if we would take her back, this time for keeps - and Gypsy came to live at our house where she remains to this day.

Gypsy adapted to us, and we adapted to her.  Routines were modified and life went on.  But we are still in the process of adapting.  This past week Gypsy taught me some more about her likes and dislikes.

There are fenced pastures in our neighborhood that are maintained by people who live elsewhere, and they use those pastures to run a few head of cattle, so it is not uncommon for the neighborhood dogs to occasionally come across a few cows or even deer.  Gypsy likes to lie out in the sun by the fence and watch the cows on our side of the road graze.  They pose no threat to her, nor she to them.

There is a pasture across the street that often sits idle, but sometimes has as much as a couple of dozen cattle grazing.  The pasture is flat and cleared with a good fence, except for the part directly across from my house which is brushy and on a rise with a poorer quality fence.  Occasionally cows will wander up there, but normally it is more apt to be frequented by white-tail deer.

A few days ago I let Gypsy out to do her morning business and then went back into the house.  I was only inside for a few minutes, however, when our new dog, a creature who hardly ever barks, went into a literal barking fit. I rushed back outside to see what had our big pup so riled up.  

Gypsy was facing across the road and barking toward the brushy area of the pasture.  There, behind the old fence, were gathered what appeared to be six or eight adolescent buffalo!  They weren't doing anything, just standing there looking at the excited dog, but Gypsy not a fan!  

That afternoon I took Gypsy to the yard again, and she had only been outside a few minutes when the buffalo appeared and set her to barking, so that outing was cut short as well.  The past few days have been buffalo-free, so perhaps they have been moved to another part of the pasture.   But if they are still around, Gypsy will adapt and eventually ignore them like she has learned to ignore the neighborhood squirrels and cats.

And Pa Rock will also adapt as he looks up from his typing and instead of seeing the occasional white-tail deer darting through the brush, he will now sometimes be able to focus on a small heard of buffalo staring back at him.

A home in the country is almost like living at the zoo!